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Welcome 2013https://jingerjackson.wordpress.com/2013/01/03/welcome-2013/
https://jingerjackson.wordpress.com/2013/01/03/welcome-2013/#respondThu, 03 Jan 2013 06:42:45 +0000http://jingerjackson.wordpress.com/?p=162As most of you know, the last few years have been hard. After my husband’s sudden death, I lost our home, took on the job of primary care giver for my grandmother with dementia, and moved. As if those changes weren’t enough, my grandmother passed and I lost my only source of income. I made the decision to go back to school (and at my age that’s tough! ) because of these things my writing has suffered.

But this is a new year, a time to reexamine life, reinvent myself. With that in mind I decided to make goals (resolutions just don’t seem to work for me…)

Goal1) Complete my studies, get my degree and finish with my 4.0 GPA intact
Goal 2) Create a schedule that permits writing time, even if for only three hours a week.
Goal 3) Blog consistently with regular updates so I can publicly track my progress.
Goal 4) Have at least one release in 2013

What goals have you chosen for the year?

My wish, my hope, is that each one of us enjoys a safe, healthy, happy and prosperous New Year!

Hugz,
JJ

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]]>https://jingerjackson.wordpress.com/2013/01/03/welcome-2013/feed/0jingerjacksonGrief, overwhelming sadness…https://jingerjackson.wordpress.com/2011/06/28/grief-overwhelming-sadness/
https://jingerjackson.wordpress.com/2011/06/28/grief-overwhelming-sadness/#respondTue, 28 Jun 2011 14:39:09 +0000http://jingerjackson.wordpress.com/?p=159It has been a very long time since I posted to my blog. On June 11th my husband of over 22 years began having difficulty breathing. The diagnosis was Congestive Heart Failure.

After tests, echocardiagrams, cardiac caths, xrays, blood work, etc it was determined he would need open heart surgery on Friday, June 17th. We got him settled and comfortable for a week long stay…

Early June 15th I was phoned saying to come to hospital ASAP. My husband had suffered a major heart attack and would require emergency surgery.

On Father’s day he was up walking around, and our son brought in the grandbabies to spend the afternoon with Grandpa. On Sunday evening he was feeling sick and asked me to go home so he could rest.

That was the last time my husband spoke to me. I was phoned early Monday the 20th to let me know I needed be driven to hospital ASAP. My husband was on a ventilator and medications to keep him comfortable.

He died June 22nd at 2:45 am.

It’s devastating to lose your spouse–especially when he is only 53 and you’re not even 45 yet.

Now I’m struggling with even more. I won’t cry on your shoulders but let me say this:

1) Always LISTEN to what the doctors tell you. They may couch the words in a way to ease the blow, but if you don’t listen you’re left with regrets over time wasted. Time you could have shared with them, you agonize over losing. They told us that this surgery was a temporary fix, they told us how sick he was, they told me he was going to die–not so bluntly until that very last night when the one doctor said, “He’s not going to make it through the night”–but I didn’t want to hear it. I heard the other things–the “this is what your future options will be” type things. It’s funny how you only hear what you want. If I’d truly LISTENED I could have had a little more time by his side instead of coming home and worrying about the dog and the cat and this or that…I wouldn’t have gotten so angry when he told me to go jump in the lake the night I asked him if he wanted me to sleep there, I’d not given him a choice. Time I WASTED and now anguish over missing out on…
2) ALWAYS make certain you have a DECENT amount of life insurance. Funerals, as they say, are NOT cheap. I was lucky in that we already had cemetery plots, that was one thing I didn’t have to take on with the Mountain swallowing me now.
3) DON’T KEEP SECRETS FROM YOUR SPOUSE! You get credits loans, take out liens on the house, they NEED to know these things!
4) Make certain there are TOD’s on property titles, POD’s on checking/savings accounts.
5) ALWAYS leave a WILL! The prospect of probate and the uncertainty it entails is terrifying as hell.
6) If you own a home and have a mortgage ALWAYS opt for that extra insurance that covers the mortgage in the event of the death of a spouse. Losing your loved one is bad enough, trying to figure out where you will live and how you will live…that’s far too much on anyone to bear.
7) When you have all your ducks in a row TELL SOMEONE where the information is! Don’t let them dig through your personal effects trying to find things. And throw out stuff that is useless information. People see insurance papers and think they are okay and then learn you CANCELLED the policy…
8) Ensure your family knows how you feel about life support, and CPR and the like. When the time comes to make difficult decisions, not knowing how YOU feel about them makes them even harder to decide.
9) When a loved one passes away give the spouse time to grieve and bury them before you swoop in with your list of demands of the deceased’s property. Some people hadn’t even waited, he died on Wednesday and by Friday they were telling me what they felt he would want them to inherit…
10) It’s okay to cry, it’s all right to wake up screaming in the morning, it’s all right to feel angry. And DON’T try to keep it under control. Let it out, let it go. You aren’t helping YOURSELF by holding it in, trying to be the strong one for everyone else. It might be their father or they’re brother, son-in-law, grandfather, whatever but it was YOUR spouse. No one else in the family knows the level of pain you feel and you have a right to break down–anywhere, anytime. If other’s can’t cope with it, too bad. I have called my cell phone with his just to hear his ring tone. It’s stupid, it’s corny, whatever. But it’s what I need.
11) When people offer to help, LET THEM. This is a hard one for me because I never like to ask for help with anything. My husband helped when I needed things done. He won’t be here to help anymore. (You have no idea how my chest cracked just writing that). You can’t do it all and you shouldn’t try to do it all. Allow people to help you out–just make sure you have someone who knows who helped you so you can remember to thank them later. Faces and things are so blurry to me I can’t remember who has done what–but I am grateful to them for it.

My husband was a loving, wonderful man who did his best to provide for us. But some things you don’t consider or even discuss because you’re too young…you’re finances are too tight…it’s too morbid…”do you have something nefarious in mind?”…whatever the truck load of reasons are but these are things that HAVE to be thought about and prepared for. We never dreamed this would happen to us, yet here we are. My husband and I used to joke about these things, I’d say something about my final wishes and he’d say “Oh? should I not eat the dessert tonight?” or “There something I should know?” We never TALKED about anything.

Don’t wait until you’re wondering where you will live because you can’t afford the house…how you will buy groceries, how you’re going to pay the bills…Plan it and get it over with so you can get back to enjoying life together.

I’m leaving town for a few days to clear my head, and try to figure out my next move so the next post will be just as long in coming as this one was I’m afraid.

Until next time much love for all the words of compassion and sympathy many have already expressed. Thank you for all the support and caring. I really do appreciate everything everyone’s done for me and my family.

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]]>https://jingerjackson.wordpress.com/2011/06/28/grief-overwhelming-sadness/feed/0jingerjacksonTold that Black is outhttps://jingerjackson.wordpress.com/2011/06/07/told-that-black-is-out/
https://jingerjackson.wordpress.com/2011/06/07/told-that-black-is-out/#respondTue, 07 Jun 2011 20:56:39 +0000http://jingerjackson.wordpress.com/?p=149Yep, recently I listened in on a marketing class and I heard that the latest reports indicate consumers do NOT like black background/dark themed websites. They say colors are hard to process and follow when its dark background and light font.

So I’m going to see if this is accurate. I’m changing my website look for a short time. I will monitor the number of hits to the site and this will help determine if I need to continue changing everything.

Hugz
JJ

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]]>https://jingerjackson.wordpress.com/2011/06/07/told-that-black-is-out/feed/0jingerjacksonHOW AWESOME TODAY IS!https://jingerjackson.wordpress.com/2011/05/04/how-awesome-today-is/
https://jingerjackson.wordpress.com/2011/05/04/how-awesome-today-is/#respondWed, 04 May 2011 20:25:19 +0000http://jingerjackson.wordpress.com/?p=150Yep, that is pure excitement you feel zinging across the virtual world and infecting your computers, readers, monitors, SmartPhones, whatever! Today is one of THE best days imaginiable. Why?

IT’S RELEASE DAY!

Morgan Creek–my baby, my dream, my FAVORITE book that I’ve written (so far) is NOW available at an eReader near you! For $3.99 you can order the book directly from Carnal Passions Publishing Simply click Morgan Creek to be redirected to the ordering page!

It’s also NEWSLETTER DAY! Unfortunately the newsletter was wrapped up before I got the link for Morgan Creek so that information will not be contained in the May edition. Want your copy of MY NEWSLETTER? Get it TODAY!

Well, I’ve got a ton of crowing to do and not enough time so I best be running out for the day. See y’all again soon!

Hugz
JJ

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]]>https://jingerjackson.wordpress.com/2011/05/04/how-awesome-today-is/feed/0jingerjacksonRoyal Weddings and Moral Outragehttps://jingerjackson.wordpress.com/2011/04/28/royal-weddings-and-moral-outrage/
https://jingerjackson.wordpress.com/2011/04/28/royal-weddings-and-moral-outrage/#respondThu, 28 Apr 2011 19:44:13 +0000http://jingerjackson.wordpress.com/?p=145This has been a wild ride of a week. Mother Nature has shown us some of her wrath and cut a devastating swath across portions of our country leaving miles of death and destruction in her wake. My heart and my prayers go out to all those affected by these horrible storms and I pray you soon have return to normalcy.

Some have said this is Mother Earth’s way of getting rid of humans to clear the world for a more civilized and intelligent life form. Others have said it was signs of the end of the world. (Maybe it is, Obama DID produce his…”birth certificate”…)

In other parts of America we have seen OBVIOUS need for a vaccine against stupidity. Along with your typical everyday fare, the Internet burned up with outrage over a Pennsylvania hen party that chose to attack a woman who is not only giving her life to teach their children but under a pen name chooses to write erotica—quite well I might add—and the news industry’s willingness to hop on the band wagon of inanity. (Of course this IS an ABC affiliate we’re discussing so I guess they can’t help it…)

If the woman in question were subjecting her students to bestiality, pedophilia, or necrophilia I’d say sure, there is a problem. If she were making her OWN books REQUIRED reading, I’d have to again raise an eyebrow. But what Judy Mays chooses to do in her own PRIVATE life is NO ONE’S business.

There was a HUGE backlash from the writing/reading community in defense of Ms. Mays. The only thing I have to add is—Honey, you can’t BUY publicity like this. I hope that your sales SKYROCKET!

Of course I’ve also read some of the not so nice comments by people regarding the women who began the witch hunt, mostly in reference to their obesity and general repulsiveness.

While I agree these women have nothing better to do all day than persecute a hard working person and I have my doubts about these women even being literate enough to actually READ a book, I find the remarks regarding their looks as appalling as the vindictiveness in their spiteful hearts for their actions.

Not everyone can be thin, and beautiful. And the ones who made remarks about these “fat ugly women” were just as WRONG and offensive in their comments. That’s like those bumper stickers that read “save a whale, harpoon a fat chick.”

You are lowering yourself to their level by attacking them for their appearance preventing them from ever enjoying anything resembling the things one reads in an erotic romance. Don’t be an example of hate and prejudice yourself.

Not that America has the patent on idiots. I’ve read news from across the globe that seems to prove Stupidity is on the rise.

There is a UK case where two men lost their jobs because they sent emails to the wrong people. One remarked to the other regarding a female acquaintance in what was reported to be coarse language a derogatory terms. Because this email was sent (in the first place it was SENT) and CC’d to the woman in question, on company time they were relieved of their financial support system.

How about the Canadian who’s “love for the wild” led him to try to keep a tiger as a pet and the cat mauled him?

Then there was a group of New Delhi friends who went on a safari and made sport of teasing a pride of lions, only to have the lions attack and drag one of them off?

Then in the beautiful Down Under a man dies after betting he can drink 30 bottles of “moonshine” in one sitting. He managed to swallow 25 before the liquor took his life.

But finalizing the week is the wedding of the 21st century. Prince William will wed Kate Middleton in a ceremony that has dominated the world broadcasting networks for months. Isn’t it wonderful that in a time when wars, murders, rapes, child molestations and other gruesome crimes run rampant the world has something BEAUTIFUL and POSITIVE to focus on?

Personally, I won’t be up at the butt crack of dawn’s early light to watch the televised service but I am PLEASED AS PUNCH to know that FINALLY good news will dominate if only for a little while.

And in my household a prayer or three will be whispered that Prince William (who is more of a man than his lying, cheating snake oil salesman of a father could ever DREAM of being) will find a long life filled with happiness and joy with the lovely girl who in a few hours will be Princess.

The only sadness I feel for this occasion is that Diana’s life was stolen and she will be unable to physically share the happy day with her son. But I’m certain she will be felt in spirit with all the love she held for her sons.

And then, I’ll be glad when I don’t have to hear or see anything about the Royal Engagement EVER again…(Although if my DH just HAPPENED to get me a copy of that ring they been advertising on TV I wouldn’t toss it out!)

Hugz to all of you!
JJ

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]]>https://jingerjackson.wordpress.com/2011/04/28/royal-weddings-and-moral-outrage/feed/0jingerjacksonJust popping in to say hello!https://jingerjackson.wordpress.com/2011/04/19/just-popping-in-to-say-hello/
https://jingerjackson.wordpress.com/2011/04/19/just-popping-in-to-say-hello/#respondTue, 19 Apr 2011 17:31:24 +0000http://jingerjackson.wordpress.com/?p=133Morgan Creek will be releasing any day now and I can’t WAIT! The editor that’s working on it says it’s a wonderful story! WOOHOO! That’s always a good thing, trust me.

Well, I can’t stay long, unfortunately. I’ve got a ton of things to take care of today. I’ll be back soon!

Over the weekend my latest release, Demon’s Fall, recieved it’s FIRST review. I was a little apprehensive as I followed the link to check it out.

But I was TOTALLY STOKED to see what the reviewer had to say. Here is a snippet from the review–I’d love for you to follow the link I’ll provide to read the FULL review–anyway here it is:
“Demon’s Fall is a great novel full of danger, love, opposition, passion, and forbidden love. I think the way Ms. Jackson has a message in the novel about forgiveness and truth is brilliantly done. The suffering that Andras has at his father’s hands and his inner struggle add dimension to this already enticing book…If you are looking for a novel full of hearts and romance this is most definitely NOT the tale for you as a demon fights himself as well as Hell for the love of one good woman.

Thank you SOO very much to the reviewer who took time out of her life to read my novel and then voice her opinion on it!

THANKS SO MUCH DANIELLE!

I have to scurry off for now, but I just HAD to crow!
Hugz
JJ

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]]>https://jingerjackson.wordpress.com/2011/04/04/yippee/feed/0jingerjacksonDemon's FallDream houses?https://jingerjackson.wordpress.com/2011/03/08/dream-houses/
https://jingerjackson.wordpress.com/2011/03/08/dream-houses/#respondTue, 08 Mar 2011 22:07:03 +0000http://jingerjackson.wordpress.com/?p=85Everyone has a dream house, you know you do. It may be a farm house, a condo in the Village, a cabin in the woods, or a townhouse in the city.

Personally I have 3 dream houses. One I consistantly dream of–which no longer stands thanks to some drunk idiots–that was my grandmother’s place when I was a kid.

The second one stands in the middle of downtown Marshal Arkansas. Ok the location isnt what makes it a dream house. The structure itself is why I would LOVE to own it.

This house is just the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. Yes, I know it’s rough around the edges, but there’s character, class and history in this place. I’d LOVE to live there…of course I’m not keen on being in the middle of town. (A town with about 800 population) but a town square none-the-less. I’d love to have this place set in the middle of a 10 acre lot surrounded by a garden of antique roses and Victorian era flowers.

My second dream house is this place:

I have no idea where it is. But again, I can see this on a HUGE open lot, surrounded by thick woods, a garden in the back, hedge roses adorn the front of the house and along a cobblestone walk.

Some people may look at either house and see dilapidated or creepy. Not me, I see definite beauty, class and opportunity.